Habit Stacking by S.J. Scott

That’s it. That’s the whole book. We all have little changes we’d like to make in our lives and incorporating them into a routine makes sense. I’ve got nothing against the idea; I’m just not sure why it’s a book. Perhaps, in other hands, it might have been a mildly interesting blog post.

Scott makes a list of ninety seven “small life changes” that the reader is meant to pick from when adding a new habit. The problem is, most of them are things we’re doing anyway. I don’t need to be told to drink water or make my bed or return a phone call. And I also don’t need to be told to put these things into a routine. Everyone who gets up in the morning and goes to work already has a routine. Children have routines. Retirees have routines. Anyone who wants to make a change will make a change by putting a new habit into her existing routine. Where else would it go?

Any functioning adult already knows everything in this book. There are a million ways to improve your habits and your productivity, but reading HABIT STACKING isn’t one of them.